. :, \ 1'/1, I , , I f{\ J/--u / $' ; lj < "' <"ÞYM'''''// "^,,,, ,..."" 52 , " , ,- t " - ',:" . :. ø:L:-..;;.., )'7é \ "- ' ;. I'! ' '*.......:;;:' . ., , , .,... " ,>" 'l 't'1 l '. "'/ '+! ':;: :" ;9' ' :.o.>> ;..:x:' .. . w ".o...".,.. Row. "Another good thing about being a turtle-we have wind resistance just about licked." her. A psychiatrist on the Clearview staff described her at this time as "dysfunctional even within the hospital environment" The court-appointed psychiatrist interviewed her and concluded that she should not be dis- charged. On December 19th, a Su- preme Court judge and six jurors met and decided that Miss Frumkin should be continued on her present court commitment. She tried to escape as she was returning to Building 25, but she was restrained. Between July and December, when- ever Miss Frumkin had not been ab- sent without leave from Creedmoor she had been receiving moderate doses of various neuroleptics, which didn't have any effect on her. She had tried to pull off the wigs that some of the female therapy aides wore, had changed her clothes ten times before she could be persuaded to leave the dormitory in the morning, had fought with female patients, and had had sex with male patients. Her medication was changed often, and she often de- manded to see the medication cards accompanying her medication cups. On the morning of January 27, 1974, a therapy aide named Mary Dodd was giving out medication in Miss Frumkin's ward. When Mrs. Dodd handed Miss Frumkin her pills, she accused Mrs Dodd of giving her the wrong medication. Mrs. Dodd told her she was simply giving her what the doctor had ordered. Miss Frumkin started screaming at Mrs. Dodd. When Mrs. Dodd tried to pour water into Miss Frumkin's medication cup, Miss Frumkin spit the pills at Mrs. Dodd and spilled water allover Mrs. Dodd and herself. Another patient as- . . sisted Mrs. Dodd by taking the medi- cation tray. Miss Frumkin hit Mrs. Dodd. "I finally remembered that if anyone is having hysterics, a slap calms them; so I slapped her on the face, not in anger or to harm her but to calm her, which it did," Mrs. Dodd later reported. Mrs. Dodd was brought up on disciplinary charges, because at Creedmoor hitting a patient is forbidden, no matter what the prov- ocation. After statements were taken from Miss Frumkin (whose account of the event varied each time she was questioned), from Mrs. Dodd, and from the patient who had assisted her, Mrs. Dodd was first given an official reprimand. She contested the repri- mand, which the hospital eventually agreed to withdraw, for several rea- sons: Mrs. Dodd had worked at Creedmoor for nearly four years and had never done anything that required special counselling or disciplinary ac- tion; Miss Frumkin was the source of a good deal of conflict In the ward, because she frequently provoked at- tacks on herself, then greatly exagger- ated or completely fantasized the be- havior of others in these incidents; and in the opinion of her supervisor Mrs. Dodd's explanation of why she had hit Miss Frumkin indicated "scrupulous honesty as well as the need for train- ing in the management of disturbed patients." Instead of the reprimand, Mrs. Dodd was given some training in the management of disturbed, assaul- tive patients. She worked at Creed- moor until her death, in 1980, and was never again brought up on disciplinary charges. On January 19, 1974, Miss Frqm- kin's medication had been changed to eighty milligrams of Stelazine daily- the equivalent of sixteen hundred mil- ligrams of Thorazine, and a higher dose than the total of the potpourri of drugs she had previously received. In late February, her condition took a turn for the better. Her personal ap- pearance and behavior continued to improve in March. She started going home on visits and went to a typing program on the Creedmoor grounds several times. In March of 1974, Harriet and Ir- ving Frumkin met with the Clearview social worker to discuss Sylvia's dis- charge. The Frumkins had by then become active in the Long Island Schizophrenia Association One mem- ber of LISA had given them a pam- phlet about Gould Farm, a communi- ty rehabilitation center that occupied six hundred acres in the Ber kshires, in western Massachusetts. Gould Farm's community was composed of about thirty full-time staff members, their spouses and children, and about forty guests-both men and women, most of them between the ages of nine- teen and forty. Many of the guests had been in psychiatric hospitals, but Gould Farm accepted only people who were "in a reasonably good state of remission." The brochure made it clear that Gould Farm could not offer anyone a permanent home; most guests stayed for a period of between three months and a year. In early April, Miss Frumkin was given a week's leave from Creedmoor. The Frumkins had made an appoint- ment at Gould Farm, and they drove Sylvia there for a required twenty- four-hour trial visit. They liked Gould Farm immediately. Sylvia was accepted